The Bluebird Mechanicals is a menagerie of wonders. A rare combination of being both expansive in scope and richly detailed...in short, it is a work that needs to be seen.

— Arts Hub

Its imagery and layers of meaning interwoven and patterned as intricately as forms found in nature, like a school of fish or a flock of birds. Talya Rubin is a mesmerising artist to watch, even in stillness, slipping uncannily and effortlessly between characters.

— RealTime

Brave, unusual, daring...there is food for thought enough to make a feast.

She has something to say. She has gone to great trouble to craft the tale. She has come a long way to tell us the story. We had best listen.

— Nothing Ever Happens in Brisbane

The lighting and set design is a masterpiece in its own right.

— Arts Hub

From Of the Causes of Wonderful Things

A dark tale, told with intelligence and a seductive ability to create an entire world from limited means. This solo theatrical offering recalls the worlds of David Lynch or the incandescent drifts encountered by Jack Torrance in a Colorado hotel (Kubrick’s The Shining).

— Le Devoir

This is intensely moving theatre, and for all the bleakness, beautiful. Rubin makes the unbearable seem bearable. Horror bows to wonder. I left feeling stricken but radiant.

— The Age

Of the Causes of Wonderful Things brings all the possibilities of theatre together. This piece is so emotive and so intriguing that the longer it goes on, the longer it could be watched. It is rare and affirming to see theatre so utterly human.

— Australian Stage (Brisbane)

The human condition can be spoken of and can be read about. But when you hear it, see it and if it unveils in front of you, haunting you, if it unsettles your being and if you begin to live within a dream narrative that has lost all boundaries – if all of this is achieved on stage then it can only be magic.

— Australian Stage

One of the strongest shows in Liveworks

— RealTime

The staging, set and props added to the sense of the disconcerting through brilliant use of scale. At times the stage shrunk to the size of a claustrophobically small box, lit with pale, down shining light and an earthen floor, barely enough room for Esther’s disembodied head and the 5-inch body of her ghostly niece. At other times the stark stage lights projected a towering wraith upon the back of the stage and up into the rafters, ominously shadowing Rubin, threatening to consume her.

— XS Entertainment

Almost always awe-inspiring, Of the Causes of Wonderful Things is a theatre piece with a premise and execution like no other.

Talya Rubin’s creation reminds me very much of a David Lynch film. There’s excellent dialogue, a plot submerged in imagery and a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. Eerie, displacing but incredibly entertaining.

— The AU Review

From Earlier Work

An experience that is at once absolutely familiar and entirely mysterious.

— The Age

Sublime. A one-woman show brought to aching life

— Melbourne Herald Sun

Blending myth and personal experience, Talya Rubin brilliantly puts the pieces together to tell a story of love, longing and betrayal. In this superbly written work, the actor moves from scene to scene and character to character with an ease that is absolutely astounding. Truly a must see show. (4.5 stars)

— The Montreal Gazette

Extraordinary, must-see piece of theatre, an uncanny ability to use space and body with elegant precision. The writing is out of this world. It’s evocative, passionate, deft and witty; as sweet as honey and just as intense. One of those exquisite gems that emerges without fanfare from the thousands of performances on in the Fringe. (5 stars).

— Adelaide Advertiser

Absolutely inhabiting all of her many characters on stage, Rubin brings subtlety, grace and buckets of skill to this unique one-woman show. Also featuring an exquisite, inventive, minimal set, this is as good, interesting and unforgettable as anything I’ve ever seen at any Fringe Festival. It’s unique and brilliant and not to be missed. (5 Stars).